Lessons In Crappy Reporting, Buzzfeed Edition

I still want to believe some reporters are just super lazy and/or sloppy and don’t have an agenda built into their reporting. However, it’s hard to give them the benefit of the doubt when they write such blatantly dishonest stories. Here is the latest from Buzzfeed writer John Stanton:

From the article:

WASHINGTON, DC – House Majority Leader Eric Cantor may be heading to Tampa with the rest of the Republican Party to fete Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan, but he won’t be addressing the convention – even while lesser stars including controversial anti-immigrant sheriff Joe Arpaio will be.

When I first read it, my I nearly fell out of my chair. I said to myself, “There is no way the GOP would be letting this guy speak at the convention.”

Well, it took me about 10 seconds of using the Google to see this was complete crap. Arpaio is not going to be speaking at the convention. From some website called VOXXI:

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is scheduled to address a large audience of Republican National Convention delegates from western states at a special reception on August 30th. The event is invitation-only.

Emphasis mine. So the headline is as accurate as writing the following:

Eric Cantor, Key Ryan Ally, Won’t Speak At Convention

While plenty of Republican lawmakers will be speaking from the podium, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor won’t be one of them. Vice President Joe Biden will be there with bells on.

After all, since Biden is speaking in the vicinity of the Tampa Bay area, then it’s accurate to say he’s speaking at the convention, right?

Since I started this blog post, Buzzfeed has updated the original piece and made a correction, but that is no excuse.

You’re supposed to get your fucking facts straight before you hit publish, not after.

Know why? Because despite their correction, the “Sheriff Arpaio is speaking at the GOP convention!” meme is already spreading.